This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Monday, 15 September 2014

The Locks on the Heart

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is adapted Imam Sahl at-Tustari’s
(q.s.) Tafsir at-Tustari.

Do they not then earnestly
seek to understand the Qur’an, or are their hearts locked up by them? (Surah
Muhammad:24)

When Allah (s.w.t.)
Created the hearts, He Secured them with locks.
The keys to those locks were the realities of faith, and the only ones
who could open their hearts through those realities were the rusul, the awliya’ and the swiddiqun.
Other people leave this world without
the locks on their hearts being opened. The
zuhhad, devout worshippers, and ‘ulama will leave this world with locked
hearts because they sought the keys to them with the ‘aql, and thus strayed from the Path.

If only they had sought them by having help of Divinely-Bestowed
tawfiq, and fadhl, they would have attained them the keys. The true Ka’bah is the heart of the prophets
and the awliya’, the locus of the Almighty's
Revelation. The physical Ka’bah is a
branch of that. If it were not for the
heart, of what use would the Ka’bah be? The
prophets and the awliya’ forsake
their own desire and follow the desire of Allah (s.w.t.). Whatever He Commands,
they do. Whoever He Denies fadhl, the awliya’ are indifferent. Indeed
in their eyes, such a thing is an enemy if it distracts them from the Real.